RE: Stepping into nitro helis (Shuttle)
First off, nice flying. Judging from the cameraman's reaction at the first 540 stall turn in the vid, that was your first?
Sounds like you've had some of the same issues that I'm having now.
On to your responses to what I've found.
I figured the bearing was toast. Dang, that means another 3+ weeks waiting on parts if they're not in stock. The piece broken off of the tail rotor housing was my fault. I couldn't slide the pushrod tube through it, so I took a flathead screwdriver to gently open it up. Unfortunately, it snapped. Instead of ordering and waiting for a new housing, I just CA'd the tube to the slot on the housing (not the best way of doing it, but I didn't get any glue inside the tube, and it worked without any additional binding).
The tail best tension was a quick re-tighten at the field one day without the manual. The belt was loose enough to lay flat against the chassis, perpindicular to where it's supposed to go. To get it back in the air, I loosened the 4 chassis screws around the boom mount and pulled the boom until the belt was tight, then locked down the screws.
During my first few hovers with her, I accidentally dug the vertical fin into the ground a couple of times.
That'd be great to see how a properly set up tail. I'll get those teardown pics posted in a little while.
If you want to check out one of my early hovers with my Blade 400 (about a month before I put it up for the next 4-5 months), I have a vide on YouTube. That vid is with a bent feathering spindle, ouch.
[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSsSlAwPls8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSsSlAwPls8[/link]
Thanks again,
Shannon